Renault F1 team believes it's now on the right path with 2016 car

The French manufacturer was on course to claim only its second points finish of its return as a works team when Jolyon Palmer spun away 10th place late on at the Hungaroring.

But the fact Renault was even in contention for points is proof recent changes and upgrades are working, says Vasseur.

In addition to trying another iteration of its troubled 2016 suspension design at the Silverstone test, Renault used a different set-up direction for the Hungaroring - focusing both its mechanical and aerodynamic settings on low to medium speed long corners.

Though that compromised some areas, it brought major gains at Turns 1, 2, 5, 9, 13 and 14, with the breakthrough coming in final practice.

"Although we didn't get the points in the end, we are in a good way," Vasseur told Autosport.

"The team is working in a much better way together, so we can be confident we are on a good path.

"We are improving with the updates, they are starting to come together and work, and OK, we didn't take a huge step, but with small steps we will close the gap to our rivals.

"Everything is going better, and we are improving step by step."

Vasseur also refused to criticise Palmer for his costly mistake.

"He was pushing, and it's good for me the guys in the car are pushing like hell," added Vasseur.

"They are doing their best, and so you can't blame them when they make a mistake."

Palmer is confident of being able to fight for points again at future races.

"We've made a big breakthrough, so I think it will carry on for another couple of races," Palmer told Autosport.

"The good news is we didn't luck into what happened, which shows we have the pace and shows we can do it again.

"We shouldn't have qualified where we did, but we did well to go from 17th to 10th, so we can do it again and have another strong result another time."